Setting the house rules ended far more uneventfully than expected. Contrary to their assumption that they wouldn’t agree on anything from start to finish, they found that they actually aligned on quite a few points.
Come home no matter what, even if angry. Don’t bring other people into the house. And during the period of cohabitation, be faithful to each other.
Those were the only rules that truly required effort.
As for activity schedules, they worked at the same place anyway, and aside from Gate deployments, their work hours were identical, so there was no need for adjustment.
Both of them were meticulous about housework and had tidy personalities, so even while discussing things, there wasn’t a single point that felt incompatible. After writing down the final rule, Rion set the pen down.
“Alright, so we’ll divide the chores like this, and tomorrow I’ll pack my stuff and move in completely? I don’t have that much luggage, and I can move the rest slowly later. I think I can handle it on my own.”
“Yes, sounds good. If there’s anything we want to change later, we’ll talk it over.”
Yu-won nodded. Thanks to the Center Director—who, despite looking utterly dazed, had processed everything quickly—Rion would be able to move into Yu-won’s place starting tomorrow.
“I can’t even remember the last time I used a day off purely to rest. Was yesterday the first time I took leave and didn’t go to the hospital? Before that, anytime I took leave, it was automatically a hospital day.”
“The hospital?”
“Before you came along, I didn’t really have a choice. I always had chronic guiding deficiency, so it affected my stamina. If I didn’t want to collapse during missions, I had to go regularly.”
“…….”
“So for me, you’re actually… kind of a really important person, you know? You should be aware of that.”
Rion said it lightly, half-joking. Even though they fought over and over again—again and again—Yu-won was an extremely important person to him.
“That’s true, but you don’t really need me anymore, right? You’ve got Jin-ha too.”
He hadn’t expected Yu-won to be happy, but the reaction was colder than anticipated. Rion placed a hand on Yu-won’s shoulder as he spoke. Right—he’s younger, and he’s my junior. I should be the one to give in.
It was composure earned after nearly half a year of fighting, then fighting again.
“Still, you were my first, so take a little pride in that. Ah—come to think of it, he should be coming out soon. I wonder if he’s heard yet.”
Checking the date, Rion imagined Jin-ha’s reaction. Once he heard, Jin-ha would definitely be shocked and flustered, asking what on earth had happened all this time.
Imagining that, Rion let out a quiet snicker.
“Ah, hang on a second.”
In the middle of comparing schedules for tomorrow, Rion’s phone rang. Checking the caller ID, he answered.
“I’ll take this call. Yeah—hello?”
—Hey, are you out of your damn mind?
The booming voice that came through the phone belonged to someone Yu-won also knew. Rion stepped away to take the call, and Yu-won waited, subtly rearranging the furniture in the room.
Yu-won really didn’t like Jin-ha. He hated how Jin-ha stuck so close to Rion, and he hated how he acted relaxed and knowing, as if he understood everything.
He knew his own behavior toward Rion was too sharp to win favor. He knew that choosing to be a prickly but reliable colleague instead of a gentle, agreeable junior had been his own decision—but even so, he disliked Jin-ha.
Kang-woo sunbae was better.
It had been better back when Kang-woo was Rion’s closest companion. At the very least, Kang-woo didn’t irritate Yu-won like this, didn’t pretend to know everything or understand everything in a way that made him feel strange.
Yu-won was happy because he knew how big a decision it must have been for Rion to reach out first, to propose living together.
That was why he’d accepted without hesitation—but in truth, he was worried. This wasn’t the first time he and Rion had tried to improve their relationship.
Every attempt ended the same way, with Rion snapping in anger, saying, ‘I’m never going to have stupid thoughts like trying to get along with you again!’—and that would be the end of it.
Still, maybe this time it’ll be different, since we even wrote things like this.
Yu-won looked at the house rules they’d written together. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get along with Rion—but whenever he saw Rion’s behavior, he couldn’t just stay quiet.
Though that probably doesn’t mean much anymore either.
Wanting Rion to take just a little more care of himself, if only to avoid Yu-won’s nagging, had apparently been asking for too much.
Rion wasn’t going to change. It was a fact Yu-won had been forced to accept over a little more than half a year.
Rion probably didn’t realize it, but that was likely connected to why their matching rate had dropped. Yu-won still liked Rion and still wished he wouldn’t get hurt—but he was tired.
Tired enough to feel a sense of self-loathing, wondering whether any of this even meant anything.
Yu-won instinctively felt that these three months would be an incredibly important time—a critical opportunity—for both himself and Rion.
Should I just stop doing all this now? Maybe it’d be better to shut up and act like a mild, obedient junior instead.
He didn’t want to be childish, but no matter how much he wanted to act mature, things didn’t go the way he wished. He even wondered whether things would change if he got a little older—but for now, that was a meaningless thought.
And rather than worrying about a future he couldn’t predict, he found himself hoping more than anything that Rion—who had stepped out to take that call—would come back as soon as possible.
***
“How could you let something like that slip without a single warning? I nearly passed out the moment we came out of the Gate.”
“Hey, I already nagged you enough about it on the phone yesterday. And it wasn’t completely impulsive—well… okay, it was half impulsive, but I did think it through seriously before deciding.”
“That damn tendency of yours to go from zero to a hundred. Seriously, you scared the hell out of me. So you’re really living with Yu-won starting today?”
“Yeah. I don’t have much to pack anyway. I’ll just grab some clothes after work and head out.”
Rion covered his ears with a scowl as Jin-ha continued to nag him. After being harassed about this all day long, he was thoroughly sick of it.
“I wanted to extend my record for longest dormitory stay a bit more. That part’s kind of disappointing.”
“You’re disappointed over the weirdest things. So what are you going to do after the three months are up?”
“I’ll probably look for a place nearby too. It’s not like I stayed in the dorm because I didn’t have money. Still, thinking about spending a big chunk all at once makes me reluctant.”
“You’ve got plenty of money, don’t you? You’ve got your Esper salary, and you go into Gates all the time. You should have enough not to worry about spending it.”
“On paper, sure. But you’ve got to get used to spending money to be comfortable with it. I’ve never really had a taste for it.”
Rion shrugged. Back when he was a rookie, it felt awkward to spend money the moment he saved it, and dorm life wasn’t uncomfortable. By the time he’d built up some seniority, he’d lost all desire to move out.
“Everyone says dorms are inconvenient no matter how good the facilities are, but I was fine with it. No need to waste money on unnecessary things, shorter commute, right next to the Center so I can run over immediately if there’s an emergency request.”
“For someone to like dorm life for those reasons… I swear, you’re the only one. Truly.”
“Anyway, that’s how it was for me. But still… I can’t live in the dorm forever. This is as good a chance as any to move out. After three months, maybe I’ll move into the officetel where you guys live too? Though it seemed too big for one person.”
“I think Building A has more large units, but there should be smaller ones too.”
“Really? Then I should look into it ahead of time.”
Relieved, Rion turned on his phone. The officetel Yu-won lived in was the closest one to the Center. The facilities were good, and while it was expensive whether by deposit or monthly rent, it wasn’t an amount that would burden Rion, who’d never lived extravagantly as an Esper.
“But seriously, are you sure you’ll be okay? If you get into a fight and feel like smashing everything, don’t take it out on some innocent house—just come straight to our place.”
“What do you take me for? And if I were going to do that, there’d be no point in living together in the first place. We promised not to run away from home just because we’re angry—to always come back.”
Rion shot Jin-ha a glare. Jin-ha, still looking unconvinced, spoke again.
“Well… yeah. If you can actually do that, then that’s best. But aren’t you throwing a housewarming? Like a cohabitation celebration or something. I kind of want to visit Yu-won’s place too.”
“Ah, a housewarming…”
Jin-ha looked at Rion with barely concealed anticipation. But given the rules he’d set with Yu-won, it was impossible. Rion spoke regretfully.
“We can’t. When we set the house rules, we agreed not to bring other people over without consent. He seems to really dislike having others over.”
“Really? That’s a shame.”
“I thought it’d be nice to hang out often since it’s the building right next door. But yeah, I guess he could dislike it. I tried asking if inviting someone over once in a while would be okay, but he said no.”
“Ah… ha. I see.”
So that’s how it is. Jin-ha caught on and nodded. Honestly, Lee Yu-won was a painfully transparent person.
And this guy’s just as funny for not noticing. Everyone must’ve had their sense for things dulled from thinking about nothing but Gates.
Jin-ha thought as he glanced down at Rion. Completely oblivious, as if he’d left all his awareness inside a Gate, Rion was simply glued to his phone, searching for a place to move into three months later.
